FicWad

Underground City of Haven, Hours before Lock-down


"Whatever happens, stick to the plan," whispered Mervall Brill as he surveyed the LEP Headquarters from a considerable distance.

Descant nodded at this and saluted his twin brother, much to Merv's annoyance. "Aye, aye, Captain."

Officers and non-officers were scattered all around Police Plaza, some nervously rushing to buy a ticket home and board the available road shuttles. LEP squads of recon and retrieval jogged from the Headquarters, forming three straight lines with the Commander leading them. They abruptly stopped right at the center of Police Plaza and made a debriefing.

The Brill Brothers crept closer to the group, Scant attempting to tip toe his way behind his brother's back. The older twin noticed this and closed his eyes, irritated while he face palmed.

"This is not the time to be acting funny, you idiot. Mistress Koboi will have our heads."

That seemed to put the younger pixie in place and made no further distractions to his older brother. They inched their way inconspicuously toward a high-rise building that was facing the LEP Headquarters directly. Scant surveyed the area for possible entrances and exits while his older brother made preparations for the infiltration.

Mervall changed into the standard LEP uniform and handed his brother an identical pair. He also produced a device that looked like the metal bases of a headgear, encircling the user's head and face. Underneath the chrome metal casings, neon blue lights radiated from the zigzag crevices powered by electricity.

"Only turn on the holo-mask after we enter the building and whenever necessary. These things only run with Mud Man batteries, we can't over-use 'em got it, Scant?"

"I'm not stupid. Of course I got it, we've gone this over a thousand times…" whined the younger pixie and in return got a glare from the older twin.

The surrounding was mostly deserted, exactly like the atmosphere Haven city has procured before a Lock-down. The only visible and working lights in the vicinity were the LEP Headquarters' lower level floors, with shadows of the occasional officer roaming the building. The Brills waited until it was the allotted three hours before the said Lock-down. At this time, Haven's geothermal generators would be cut off to the general public and will be used to power the shields protecting the underground city. The twin pixies nodded at each other before running on the dimly lit sections of Police Plaza.

They halted just beneath a camera; however, their current position was detected by the sensors. This was surely of no consequence for they were quite prepared. Descant pressed a button on his left arm band and instantly, his appearance changed into the perfect replica of Corporal Lili Frond. Mervall snickered.

"Shut it, Merv. Not a word…" he gave his older brother a long poisonous look.

The pixie shrugged and smothered a grin. "It looks good."

Scant grumbled under his breath as Mervall turned on his holo-mask, and changed into Grub Kelp.

"Let's try not to crash on anybody- this is after all, a hologram."

"Aye, aye."

As the pixie twins hastily entered the building, they were greeted by an empty hall way. All officers must probably be on the upper floors and so they hurried further inside the Headquarters. The lights were steady before they reached the underground level, now; it flickered wildly as they descended to the LEP's Artillery storage room. Scant took a step back and glanced nervously at his brother. The space in front of them was covered in darkness. It ominously looked like the place was trying to swallow them whole.

Even Mervall gulped nervously. He flicked his arm band and leveled the stream of artificial light in front of them. "Come on, we don't have all day."

Descant felt his palms sweat and gingerly turned off his holo-mask. He reluctantly followed after Merv's disappearing form in front of a room with double titanium doors, labeled; 'LEP ARTILLERY: LEVEL U – CODE RED'.

"Do we still have to get those truffles?" he squeaked.

Outside Chute E1, Commander Trouble Kelp made sure the last team made it off, before the chute's gates would be closed to the public in an hour. His expression was dark as the doors closed with an automatic hiss. The city's shuttle port used to be bustling with passengers, but now, it was entirely empty. Trouble swore he could even hear his breathing. He scowled, realizing he had just wasted a few precious minutes wandering aimlessly. Funny what a person does before imminent damnation smacks him on the backside. Frond, help us all.

Back in the Ops Booth, the technical wiz scrambled for his ringing communicator, buried somewhere within the countless equipment stashed inside the room. While attempting to get up from his specialized centaur chair, Foaly lost balance and fell on his rump in an undignified heap. He groaned in pain and blushed, thinking about the embarrassment he'd have if there were any witnesses. If Holly was there, she'd be laughing her elfin head off and would never let the centaur forget about it. If Root was there, Frond rest his soul, he'd be choking on his fungus cigar and his face a mixture of purple and magenta. If the convict Diggums was there… the centaur didn't want to think about it.

The communicator rang shrilly, breaking him from his daydreams. He instantly got up and dug out the device from where it was flashing a cold flashing blue.

"Foaly, do you read me?" echoed Trouble Kelp's gruff voice on the other line.

Foaly snorted none too subtly.

"Is that a trick question or a rhetorical one? Of course I can hear you loud and clear, Commander. I don't have to explain to you how brilliant my inventions are, do I? Honestly, no one appreciates a technical gen-"

"Any minute now centaur, or else whatever budget you have on those inventions is going down the drain," the Commander cut off.

The technical genius harrumphed indignantly. LEP jocks and their simple minded nature, he sulkily thought. Foaly spotted a half eaten carrot on one of his console panels and grabbed it, chewing noisily.

"So what is it, Trubs?" he nonchalantly asked, knowing that it'd rub on the Commander's nerves.

Don't they all? He snickered inwardly and grinned.

On the other end, Trouble was having trouble (A/N: pun!) controlling his temper. The centaur always manages to hit a nerve like a stink-worm in a dwarf's belly. He sighed and massaged his aching temples; he'd probably be a candidate for retirement sooner than the elf thought. Oh, Joy.

"Listen pony boy, I am your Commander and I can still whip your behind without expecting any complaints. Do you want to have a life sentence as a non payable LEP technician?"

The centaur shivered at the thought. "Fine, what is it Commander?" he drawled the last word, eliciting a strained sigh from Trouble.

"I need you to make final mission orders to Captain Short. I'll forward my message on your link, the com devices will be out before I get to send it to her. Also, beep me if anything seems unusual, I'll be patrolling Haven before Lock-down."

"Yessir."

"Kelp, over and out."

Foaly rolled his eyes. Kelp's last orders were forwarded to his com link which he transferred on his private server. He was going through the last encrypted message and was about to send it, when his plasma screen distorted briefly. The technical wiz turned to his camera and sensor visuals. There seemed to be nothing at all that caused the glitch. He felt nervousness claw his stomach. What if it's Opal?

"Nonsense," he countered loudly. "She can't be here; the seeker-sleeper is flawless. I got her location before anything else."

Without warning, the entire building dimmed for a moment before lighting up again. Ah, it must be the generators malfunctioning. The lock-down is due in an hour after all. He sighed in relief, his paranoia subsiding.

"Help me set this thing up," called Mervall behind his back.

He produced a portable computer and connectors, handing them to his twin brother. Haven's LEP facility was no joke, even if all power was out, the Artillery Room ran on thorium plasma batteries that could last more than a human lifetime. They couldn't exactly wait that long outside the eerie darkness.

The double titanium doors loomed like giant tombstones over the brothers. Scant palmed the chrome wall for a protruding access panel in the dark. Clicking on a headlight, he disassembled the panel with nimble fingers. It showed complex patterns of blue, red and white wires connected to countless micro-ports and chips. In a swift motion, he pulled out a series of coordinated wires and plugged the portable computer's connectors to the ridden port.

"It's ready, Merv."

"Alright, be on standby. I'll be giving you the access codes simultaneously after making a direct feed on the network."

His younger brother nodded and Mervall tapped the computer expertly without missing a beat. Beads of sweat pooled on his forehead and under his eyes as he keyed in hacks, made by their mistress Past Opal Koboi for the mission. After an agonizing twenty minute struggle on the system, he finally breezed in through Foaly's guarded security network. In other thirty-five seconds, he found the pass codes for the Artillery room. Before erasing all his tracks on the system, he fed a decoy signal unto the technical genius' computer.

"Pass code is U-thirty-six-one-oh-eight-N-ninety-seventeen-D-five-oh-sixty-two."

Scant entered the codes and didn't waste any time to glance at his older twin brother. Seconds later, nothing happened and then a pneumatic hiss echoed in the still dim hallway. The younger pixie yanked the connectors off and replaced them with the original wires, fixing the access panel without much further ado. Good thing they wore enhanced polyester gloves, those things made by Koboi Industries never left a mark. They were absolutely not for sale either.

Hesitantly, the Brill Brothers passed through the Artillery doors, the lights automatically went on inside the room. The change in brightness made them squint at the numerous lethal and non lethal weapons of the LEP.

Merv and Scant whistled lowly at the same time. They grinned at each other.

"Mistress Koboi would be so delighted," murmured Scant as he roamed inside the room. "We have so many resources now; they can make new inventions with these things."

"I just hope we aren't volunteering as unwilling guinea pigs," replied Mervall lightly, though he wasn't smiling.

Out of the corner of his eye, the younger twin spotted the thing they were looking for. He beckoned his brother to come closer, and gingerly lifted the device on one of Opal's inventions; the InfiniBox. It was one of Koboi's most prized possessions, the InfiniBox, true to its name, could expand and compress into any size that allowed the things to be stored in it. Even a mass of one ton would only weigh a few pounds inside the box, breaking down the object's atoms once inside it.

After putting the device inside the InfiniBox, it disappeared to the naked eye. Mervall searched the room further for more useful devices to carry when he found himself staring at a secluded door inside the vast room. He didn't have to guess what was inside it when he saw the logo engraved on the door. He smirked. Koboi Laboratories.